27 Aug 2026
Who Really Owns Your Data? Elan Nyer of Ownli on Rethinking the Car Wash Data Economy
On this episode of Better Carwashing Everywhere, host Matt DeWolf talks with Elan Nyer, co-founder of Ownli, about a different kind of data conversation than the industry is used to. Rather than how operators can use data to market to customers, the discussion centers on who should own that data, and what changes when the answer is the customer.
Nyer's path into car washing started outside it entirely. He began in public policy before moving into automotive technology, working on early safety systems such as lane keep assist and automatic emergency braking with automakers, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and insurers. From there he joined a company building detailed digital models of physical environments, an effort he compares to a far more current Google Maps. That work led to a partnership with auto insurers, encouraging drivers to adopt dash cams so that, in a crash, insurers would have clear evidence rather than disputed accounts. Along the way, Nyer saw how aggressively insurers bought driver data from brokers, and how reluctant customers were to hand it over directly, even though sharing it could help insurers price policies more fairly.
That observation became the basis for Ownli. Instead of buying customer data from third parties, Ownli asks the customer directly, gives them the choice to say yes or no, and lets them benefit when they share. Nyer describes the model as a middle layer that verifies real people, connects them to companies that want to reach them, and splits the value among everyone involved, rather than a broker quietly reselling information without the customer's knowledge.
Applied to car washes, the idea is that an operator's membership and retail base is itself a valuable, underused data set, often including email, phone number and license plate. Nyer's pitch is to let operators plug into partners such as vehicle refinance companies, extended warranty providers, insurers and dash cam makers, surfacing offers to likely customers, with revenue split roughly evenly among the car wash, Ownli and the customer. He is candid that trust is hardest to build, since data has a poor reputation and offers cannot come across as another coupon feed. Early partners have used it to vary regular communications, folding in offers between usual membership and retention messaging, and some larger insurers are beginning to embed the same ecosystem inside their own apps.
One feature in development ties directly to a car wash's core service: showing a customer their vehicle's current market value, sourced from Edmunds, right after a wash, along with average auto insurance premiums for their area, reinforcing the value of routine washing without feeling like a sales pitch.
The conversation also covers the reverse side. Because insurers know where policyholders live, they can direct offers, such as a discount on a first wash, to nearby customers, giving car washes a more precise local acquisition channel than flyers or signage. Nyer, new to the industry himself, describes attending his first Car Wash Show in Nashville, held at the same venue as an insurance conference, and being struck by how much more engaging the car wash side was, along with the depth of equipment, software and chemistry vendors he hadn't known existed.
Looking ahead, Nyer's vision for Ownli extends beyond automotive, toward individuals holding a single data profile that industries like housing and banking can request access to directly, cutting the inefficiency of blind, high-cost customer acquisition. Asked for one takeaway that could make listeners better tomorrow, Nyer points to something entirely outside the data conversation: making time for weight-bearing exercise, a habit he admits he is still working on himself.
Keep it clean!
